Customer appreciation night at Westside Self Service on Saturday

On a busy day in the winter, approximately 1,000 people come through the doors at Westside Self Service. In the summer, that number sometimes triples. As a way of saying "thank you" to their customers, the staff at Westside Self Service will throw a huge party this Saturday in Malta.

"We want the entire family to come down for this community event," Bridgett Ereaux, who owns the stores with her husband Bob, said. "It is our way of saying thank you to our customers and to the community as a whole for supporting us."

Westside Self Service will host their Customer Appreciation BBQ and Street Dance on Saturday, August 20, starting at 5 p.m. on the west side of the store with hamburgers, hotdogs, soda and beer as well as other treats. There will be family friendly games for both children and adults to play for prizes including pick-up sticks, a cupcake walk and a duck pond. At 6 p.m., Trial by Fire will take to the stage and play for the crowd until the wee hours of the night.

Prizes will be given away at the party – which can be signed up for in advance, but winners must be present to win – including a skateboard, pogo sticks, scooters, super soakers, Build-A-Bear, a Nike golf bag, a Yeti Hopper Cooler, Yeti side-kick cases and tumblers, coolers, a float tube and a chair float. Drawings for the prizes begins at 7 p.m. with a grand prize drawing at 8 p.m. During the Customer Appreciation Party, there will be $5 match play at both Westside Casino and Kid Curry (limit one per person per casino) all night long. To ensure there's no drinking and driving from the event, the Phillips County Transit will give people rides home from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m.

Since 2008, Bob and Bridgett Ereaux have been the owners of Westside Self Service (the couple bought the establishment from his mother, Jane, shortly after the couple wed) but the convenience store wasn't something new to Bob when the store changed hands, not by a longshot.

"It has been here since the 1960's when it was Bear's Truckstop," Bob said. "But my dad (Claude "Ezzie" Ereaux) owned it for years and I grew up working here."

During their high school years – Bob graduated from Malta High School and Bridgett from Dodson High School – both Bob and Bridgett worked at Westside Self Service, though they wouldn't marry for a few more decades.

"I knew her for years, but she didn't want anything to do with me," Bob joked. "That's how I first met her."

The original building which housed Westside Self Service burned down in January of 1997 and was rebuilt at its current spot. The new building has had four refurbishments since 2008 – including an updated deli and new check stand design – and when the store was rebuilt, Westside Casino was added. For 19-hours a day, 365 days a year Westside Self Service is open for business – though they close early a few nights of the year during holidays.

The store (including the casinos) currently employees 40 people in Phillips County and of those employees, none have been at the store longer or is more colorful than Tom Golik who started working for Ezzie back in 1979.

"It's great," Golik said. "It's both the people I work with and the customers that make it great. The variety of people you can meet . . . it's incredible. I've met more of my relatives (at Westside Self Service) than anywhere else."

"I was in fifth or sixth grade when he started working here," Bob added. "He would do anything for anyone."

From motor oil to Morton's Salt and from Pringles to the Phillips County News, Westside Self Service has it all.

"One day, I hand-counted over 11,000 pieces of candy," said Katie Smith, store manager. "We literally have thousands of different products."

The party gets underway at 5 p.m. this Saturday...be there or be square.

"We hope to see everyone come out and have a good time," Bob said.